Editing Existential phenomenology

{{Short description|Study of philosophy through experience}}
'''Existential phenomenology''' encompasses a wide range of thinkers who take up the view that philosophy must begin from experience like [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]], but argues for the temporality of personal existence as the framework for analysis of the human condition.<ref>''[[Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'' (1998): [https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/phenomenological-movement/existential-phenomenology "Phenomenological movement: 4. Existential phenomenology].</ref>

==Overview==
In ''[[Being and Time]]'', [[Martin Heidegger]] reframes [[Edmund Husserl]]'s phenomenological project into what he terms [[fundamental ontology]]. This is based on an observation and analysis of ''[[Dasein]]'' ("being-there"), human being, investigating the fundamental structure of the ''Lebenswelt'' ([[lifeworld]], Husserl's term) underlying all so-called regional ontologies of the [[special sciences]]. In Heidegger's philosophy, people are thrown into the world in a given situation, but they are also a project towards the future, possibility, freedom, wait, hope, anguish.<ref>Farina, Gabriella (2014). [http://www.crossingdialogues.com/Ms-A14-07.pdf Some reflections on the phenomenological method.] ''Dialogues in Philosophy, Mental and Neuro Sciences'', '''7'''(2):50–62.</ref> In contrast with the philosopher [[Kierkegaard]], Heidegger wanted to explore the problem of ''Dasein'' existentially (''{{lang|de|existenzial}}''), rather than [[existentiell]]y (''{{lang|de|existenziell}}'') because Heidegger argued that Kierkegaard had already described the latter in "penetrating fashion".{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} Most existentialist phenomenologists were concerned with how people are constituted by their experiences and yet how they are also free in some respect to modify both themselves and the greater world in which they live.

Building on Heidegger's language that people are "[[Being and Time|thrown into the world]]", Jean-Paul Sartre says that "man is a being whose existence precedes his essence".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm|title=Existentialism is a Humanism}}</ref> Both point out that any individual's identity is a matter of the social, historical, political, and economic situation into which he or she is born. This frees phenomenology from needing to find a universal ground to all experience, since it will always be partial and influenced by the philosopher's own situation. [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]] argued that the lesson of Husserl's reduction is that "[[Phenomenology of Perception|there is no complete reduction]]" because even phenomenologists cannot resist how they have been shaped by their history, culture, society, and language.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Merleau-Ponty|first=Maurice|title=Phenomenology of Perception|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=978-0415834339|location=New York}}</ref> In her work ''[[The Second Sex]]'', [[Simone de Beauvoir]] explored how greatly norms of gender shape the very sense of self that women have, in distinction from men. [[Hannah Arendt]] discusses how totalitarian regimes in the 20th century presented entirely new regimes of terror that shaped how people understand political life in her work ''[[The Human Condition (Arendt book)|The Human Condition]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Arendt|first=Hannah|title=The Human Condition|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2018|isbn=978-0226586601}}</ref> [[Frantz Fanon]] explored the legacy of racism and colonialism on the psyches' of black men.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fanon|first=Frantz|title=Black Skin, White Masks|publisher=Grove Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0802143006}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Fanon|first=Frantz|title=The Wretched of the Earth|year=2004 |publisher=Grove Press|isbn=978-0802141323}}</ref> However, they all in different ways also stressed the freedom which humans have to alter their experiences through rebellion, political action, writing, thinking, and being. If people are constituted by the human social world, then it is only humans that created it and can create a new world if they take up this task.

==Development==
Besides Heidegger, other existential phenomenologists were [[Max Scheler]], [[Wilhelmus Luijpen]], [[Hannah Arendt]], [[Karl Jaspers]], [[Emmanuel Levinas]], [[Gabriel Marcel]], [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], [[Simone de Beauvoir]], [[Edith Stein]], [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]], {{Interlanguage link multi|Enzo Paci|it}} and [[Samuel Todes]]. Many of these phenomenologists' conceptions of the self and self-consciousness are built on criticisms of or response to [[Edmund Husserl]]'s initial views.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cerbone|first=David R.|title=Understanding Phenomenology|publisher=Routledge|year=2006|isbn=978-1-84465-054-5|location=Oxon|pages=66|language=en}}</ref> 

Sartre synthesized Husserl and Heidegger's ideas. His modifications include his replacement of Husserl's concept, ''epoche'', with Heidegger's structure of ''being-in-the -world''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sartre|first=Jean-Paul|title=Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings|publisher=Psychology Press|year=2001|isbn=0-415-21367-3|location=London|pages=60|language=en}}</ref> His existential phenomenology, which is articulated in his works such as ''[[Being and Nothingness]]'' (1943), is based on the distinction between being-in-itself and being-for-itself.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Zahavi|first=Dan|title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Phenomenology|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2018|isbn=978-0-19-875534-0|location=Oxford|pages=40|language=en}}</ref> Beauvoir placed her discourse on existential phenomenology within her intertwining of literature and philosophy as a way to reflect concrete experience. In her works on women's lived experiences, she attempted to address the problems between the sexes as well as the reconciliation of related strands of continental philosophical traditions, which include the philosophy of Heidegger, the phenomenological methods of Husserl and Sartre, and [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]]'s philosophy of history.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last1=O'Brien|first1=Wendy|title=The Existential Phenomenology of Simone de Beauvoir|last2=Embree|first2=Lester|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|year=2001|isbn=978-90-481-5732-7|location=Dordrecht|pages=9, 151|language=en}}</ref>

Arendt's existential phenomenology reflected a distrust of mass society and her preference for the preservation of social groups citing the persecution of Jews as an example of victimization by societies' atomizing processes.<ref name=":0" />

==Other disciplines<!--'Existential-phenomenological psychology' and 'Existential phenomenological psychology' redirect here-->==
Existential phenomenology also extends to other disciplines. For example, [[Leo Steinberg]]'s essay "[[The Philosophical Brothel]]" describes Picasso's ''[[Les Demoiselles d'Avignon]]'' in a perspective that is existential-phenomenological. It has also impacted [[architectural theory]], especially in the phenomenological and Heideggerian approaches to space, place, dwelling, technology, etc.<ref>This is evident in the works of [[Christian Norberg-Schulz]], as for example is the case with his book: ''Genius Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture'' (New York: Rizzoli, 1980). This is also felt with the practices of architects in the [[Phenomenology (architecture)]] movement</ref> In literary theory and criticism, [[Robert Magliola]]'s ''Phenomenology and Literature: An Introduction'' (Purdue UP, 1977; rpt. 1978) was the first book<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Holdheim |first=W. Wolfgang |date=1979 |editor-last=Magliola |editor-first=Robert R. |title=The Lessons of Phenomenology |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/464782 |journal=Diacritics |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=30–41 |doi=10.2307/464782 |issn=0300-7162|url-access=subscription }}</ref> to explain to Anglophonic academics – systematically and comprehensively – the range of literary theories and practices identified with "phenomenological literary criticism" on the Continent. The practices of the Francophone [[Geneva school (literary criticism)|Geneva School]] (-of literary criticism), those of the Swiss-German theorist and critic [[Emil Staiger]], and those of several other theorists/critics, are explained in detail. The influences of the phenomenological theorist [[Roman Ingarden]], the early-phase ([[existentialist]]) [[Martin Heidegger]], and of [[Mikel Dufrenne]] receive a treatment over 100 pages long all-told. The polemics involving phenomenology and its opponents are addressed in separate chapters, entitled respectively "Phenomenology Confronts Parisian Structuralism," and "The Problem of Validity in [[E. D. Hirsch]] and [[Husserl]]. The 1978 rpt. of Magliola's book features on its back cover very strong endorsements from [[Robert Scholes]], Eugene Kaelin, [[Monroe Beardsley]] and Ralph Freedman.

The field of [[psychology]] includes an approach known as '''existential-phenomenological psychology'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->.<ref>Zieske, C, [http://www.ajuronline.org/uploads/Volume_17_2/AJUR_Vol_17_Issue_2_September_2020p45.pdf "A brief history and overview of existential-phenomenological psychology"] (October 2020).</ref>

==See also==
*[[British Society for Phenomenology]]
*[[Edith Stein]]
*[[Emmanuel Levinas]]
*[[Existentialism]]
*[[Interpretative phenomenological analysis]]
*[[Jacques Derrida]]
*[[Søren Kierkegaard]]
*[[Paul Ricoeur]]
*[[Phenomenology (philosophy)]]
*[[Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy]]
*[[World Phenomenology Institute]]

==Notes==
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{{Existentialism}}

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[[Category:Types of existentialism|Phenomenology]]
[[Category:Phenomenology]]